New changes installed at Sarasota Memorial Hospital

SARASOTA - Collaboration within the medical community is part of our health care system's continuing evolution, an effort to pool resources and in turn provide better care.

It's happening right here on the Suncoast where on Friday Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center gave us a first look at a brand new hybrid operating room and a new leader for it's team of surgeons.

It might not look like much right now but in just several weeks, this will be the home of Sarasota Memorial Hospital's hybrid operating room.

"You had interventional cardiologist that lived in the world of the cath lab. And you had cardiac surgeons that lived in the world of the OR. And now with this room that we're in right today we'll actually combine both disciplines into working on the patient at the same time," said David Patterson of Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

It will allow doctors and specialists to collaborate and perform combined open, minimally invasive, image guided and catheter-based procedures in the same operative setting.

"It really is a team approach and it's taken a different approach to cardiac outcomes and betterment for the patient themselves," Patterson said.

He added it will also allow space for more surgeons and the ability to perform several procedures at once.

"It brings a sea arm, a fixed device, into the OR where you typically have portable sea arms," Patterson said. "The imaging's a lot better, this has the capability of doing 3-D imaging while the patient is on the table, things that we don't have and the technology wasn't available."

Another thing not present is a person to lead the hospital's heart team, which is why the hospital created a Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery position.

"We learned that a team approach was a much better patient focus approach, and you get variability between surgeons and cardiologists and have a more eyes and ears on a patient is a better approach to have," Patterson said.

After a nation wide search Doctor Jeffrey Sell, a cardiothoratic surgeon from Maryland with a wealth of experience and knowledge has been chosen.

"We knew that it wasn't going to just take someone that would be a caretaker for the program, we needed somebody who really had the fire power and rocket boosters to get the program to the next level,"said Dr. Michael Argenziano from Columbia University Medical Center.

"What I want to do here is build a new culture, a culture of team and safety so that everybody that has anything to do with any patient that has a heart problem in this hospital buys into contributing their best," Dr. Jeffrey Sell said.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital to unveil it's new hybrid operating room later this month.